Automated vehicle ownership support

ABSTRACT

A computer system includes a memory with instructions to receive telematics data regarding a vehicle, analyze the telematics data to determine a low fuel condition based on the fuel of the vehicle violating a predetermined threshold, and determine a location of the vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data. The instructions, in response to determining the low fuel condition, further identify one or more fuel dispensing stations in proximity to the location of the vehicle, provide information related to the one or more fuel dispensing stations to a mobile application displayed to a driver of the vehicle, and determine a scope of fueling permissions associated with the vehicle at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations. The instructions also automatically initiate a fueling session at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations contingent upon the scope of fueling permission.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/152,526 filed Oct. 5, 2018, which is a Continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 14/879,828 filed Oct. 9, 2015, which is aContinuation-in-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/687,557, filed Apr.15, 2015, U.S. application Ser. No. 14/689,747, filed Apr. 17, 2015 andU.S. application Ser. No. 14/693,176, filed Apr. 22, 2015. The contentof the above applications are incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to systems for processing telematicsdata, and in particular to systems providing automated vehicle ownershipsupport services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Information and interactive mobile services available to mobile vehiclesare increasing due to the demand of mobile vehicle operators forservices such as navigation assistance, directory assistance, vehiclemaintenance assistance, roadside assistance, information servicesassistance and emergency assistance. Requests for many of these servicesoccur when a vehicle is outside of a home region, for example, duringpersonal travel or business trips to neighboring or distant cities.Presently, on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems are incorporated into manytypes of vehicles, and provide an electronic solution for controlling,diagnosing, and reporting the operating state of the vehicle and toprovide other wireless communication and location-based services.

Currently, telematics service call centers, in-vehicle compact disk (CD)or digital video display (DVD) media, web portals, and voice-enabledphone portals provide various types of location services, includingdriving directions, stolen vehicle tracking, traffic information,weather reports, restaurant guides, ski reports, road conditioninformation, accident updates, street routing, landmark guides, andbusiness finders.

However, conventional services do not provide a single interface for anenhanced vehicle ownership experience to the customer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As discussed herein, the subject disclosure provides an infrastructureand techniques that represent a marriage of vehicle telematics data, asmart fuel dispenser, cloud-based multichannel commerce solutions, and acustomer device (e.g., a mobile device, tablet, computer, etc.). Theinfrastructure in cooperation with a mobile application running on acustomer device provides a customizable vehicle ownership experience tocustomers, including novel value-added services and advice in additionto conventional capabilities.

According to one particular embodiment of the subject disclosure, acomputer system for processing vehicle ownership support data isdisclosed. The computer system comprise a memory configured to store oneor more processes. The processes, when executed by a processor, areoperable to receive telematics data regarding a vehicle; analyze thetelematics data to determine a low fuel condition based on the fuel ofthe vehicle violating a predetermined threshold; determine a location ofthe vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data; in response todetermining the low fuel condition, identify one or more fuel dispensingstations in proximity to the location of the vehicle; provideinformation related to the one or more fuel dispensing stations to amobile application displayed to a driver of the vehicle; determine ascope of fueling permissions associated with the vehicle at the one ofthe one or more fuel dispensing stations; and automatically initiate afueling session at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stationscontingent upon the scope of fueling permission.

In another embodiment, a method disclosed comprises receiving telematicsdata regarding a vehicle; analyzing the telematics data to determine alow fuel condition based on the fuel of the vehicle violating apredetermined threshold; determining a location of the vehicle based onat least one of the telematics data; in response to determining the lowfuel condition, identifying one or more fuel dispensing stations inproximity to the location of the vehicle; providing information relatedto the one or more fuel dispensing stations to a mobile applicationdisplayed to a driver of the vehicle; determining a scope of fuelingpermissions associated with the vehicle at the one of the one or morefuel dispensing stations; and automatically initiating a fueling sessionat the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations contingent uponthe scope of fueling permission.

In another embodiment disclosed, a system comprises means for receivingtelematics data regarding a vehicle; means for analyzing the telematicsdata to determine a low fuel condition based on the fuel of the vehicleviolating a predetermined threshold; means for determining a location ofthe vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data; means foridentifying one or more fuel dispensing stations in proximity to thelocation of the vehicle in response to determining the low fuelcondition; means for providing information related to the one or morefuel dispensing stations to a mobile application displayed to a driverof the vehicle; means for determining a scope of fueling permissionsassociated with the vehicle at the one of the one or more fueldispensing stations; and means for automatically initiating a fuelingsession at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stationscontingent upon the scope of fueling permission.

These and other features of the systems and methods of the subjectinvention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the artfrom the following detailed description of the preferred embodimentstaken in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that those skilled in the art to which the subject inventionappertains will readily understand how to make and use the devices andmethods of the subject invention without undue experimentation,preferred embodiments thereof will be described in detail herein belowwith reference to certain figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram view of an exemplary vehicleownership support service in the form of an enhanced fuel dispensingsystem constructed in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary architecture diagram for a system forprocessing vehicle ownership support data in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a more detailed architecture diagram showing communicationsamongst system components shown in FIG. 2 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram for the system of FIGS. 2 and 3demonstrating some exemplary vehicle ownership support services providedby the system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A-5E illustrate an exemplary onboarding process for accessingautomated vehicle ownership support services infrastructure inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate exemplary vehicle related notifications providedby an automated vehicle ownership support services infrastructure via amobile application in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 7A-7F illustrate exemplary enhanced trip management servicesprovided by an automated vehicle ownership support servicesinfrastructure via a mobile application in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention;

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate exemplary enhanced vehicle maintenance supportservices provided by an automated vehicle ownership support servicesinfrastructure via a mobile application in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention; and

FIGS. 9A-9G illustrate additional exemplary services provided by anautomated vehicle ownership support services infrastructure via a mobileapplication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made to the drawings. A component or a featurethat is common to more than one drawing is indicated with the samereference number in each of the drawings.

As noted above, the infrastructure platform disclosed herein providesvehicle ownership support services to a mobile application accessible ata customer's mobile device associated with a customer's vehicle. Suchservices may include automated fuel dispensing services among manyothers. Conventional fuel dispensers permit customers to dispense fuelinto customer vehicles. FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram view of asmart or enhanced fuel dispensing system constructed in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, various devicescommunicate with each other and/or with an infrastructure platform 125,discussed in greater detail below.

Smart fueling techniques, which are provided by dispensing system 115create an environment that supports communication amongst the vehicle110, a customer device 112 (e.g., a mobile phone, tablet, computingdevice, wearable device, etc.), and a smart fuel dispenser 115. Notably,various communications options exist amongst each of these devices. Forexample, each of the vehicle 110, the customer device 112, and fueldispenser 115 can communicate directly with each other and/or cancommunicate through infrastructure platform 125.

Although fuel dispenser 115 is shown as a physical standalone fuelingstation, it is expressly contemplated that fuel dispenser 115 can bepart of and communicate with a larger distributed processing system(e.g., the cloud-based processing system).

As discussed herein, vehicle 110 includes vehicle telematics data eitherdirectly obtained from the vehicle telematics data infrastructureincluding any server/cloud stored data or via one or more onboarddiagnostic (OBD) systems that generate telematics data, includingvehicle diagnostic data. With respect to telematics data, generallytelematics represents a mix of hardware and software telecommunicationstechnology that conveys data or information for the purpose of improvingbusiness services or functions. In the automotive space, telematics hasevolved to also include vehicle diagnostic data, global positioningsatellite (GPS) data corresponding to the vehicle, support services dataand the like.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary architecture diagram for a system forprocessing vehicle ownership support data in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In one illustrative embodiment, thedisclosed system may include an automated vehicle ownership supportservices infrastructure 125 that may comprise a content delivery network(CDN). As illustrated, the CDN may include an origin server 230, adistribution server (also “control server”) 206, and various hardwareand software components, infrastructure services, APIs, and SDKs adaptedto communicate in a CDN. For example, a distribution server 206 may bedesignated to provide enhanced vehicle ownership support services byserving content objects to end users mobile devices 112 in a particularcity, on a particular access network, or both, to facilitate efficientdelivery and promote a good user experience. As used herein, a contentobject is any content file or content stream and could include, forexample, video, pictures, maps, data, audio, software, and/or text.

An end user requests delivery of enhanced vehicle ownership supportservices through its respective end user device 112. The end user device112 could be a handheld computer, media player, mobile Internetappliance, smartphone, streaming radio or any other mobile device thatcan be associated with end user's vehicle 110 and capable of receivingand processing content objects.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control server206 balances the need to provide rapid delivery of content objects(i.e., alerts) to end user devices 112 with the need to make efficientuse of network resources. In one non-limiting embodiment, the controlserver 206 can monitor the state of content objects at origin server 230and detect when a content provider uploads or publishes new or modifiedcontent objects (e.g., telematics events). In various embodiments,messaging system employed by the infrastructure platform, for example,can be middleware based on the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).In various embodiments, the messaging system can be apublish-and-subscribe, request-response, or some other linkage by whichthe control server 206 monitors, detects, and/or is alerted to enhancedvehicle ownership related events at the origin server 230. In exampleembodiments, the infrastructure platform 125 may include one or morelayers between the control server 206 and the origin server 230. Eachlayer may provide a different API. Advantageously, the infrastructureplatform 125 allows one of skill in the art to adapt theoperational/functional description of the technology across manydifferent vendors' hardware configurations or platforms, without beinglimited to specific vendors' hardware configurations or platforms.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the system for processing vehicle ownershipsupport data of the present disclosure includes a Telematics ServiceInterface (TSI) 208 adapted to actively create an interface and acommunication link between a TSI client 204 hosted by the mobile device112 and one of the APIs 210, 218. Further, the TSI 208 allows theinfrastructure platform 125 to provide various vehicle related services,for example, a telematics service such as a remote diagnosis or e-Callwhile acting as a relay between the infrastructure platform 125 and anexternal device hosting a mobile application 202.

As noted above, the infrastructure platform 125 may include an SDK(Service Development Kit) 216 having an API modules, such as telematicAPI 218, repair API 210, allowing mobile applications 202 to connect toat least one web services module contained within layer 7 interface 228.In one embodiment, the TSI client 204 may communicate with the layer 7interface 228 through remote procedure calls. In one embodiment, theinfrastructure platform 125 deploys Java technology. It should beappreciated that Java technology's platform-independence and superiorsecurity model provide a cross-platform solution for the heterogeneoussystems. Thus, in one embodiment, telematic API 218 may include JavaAPIs that are available to support telematics mediums, such as speechrecognition through Java Speech API (JSAPI), media delivery through JavaMedia Framework (JMF) and wireless telephony through Wireless TelephonyCommunications APIs (WTCA), etc.

In one embodiment, a plurality of vehicle support services may comprisea cloud-based platform 232 storing service consumer's information aswell as collected vehicle related data (i.e., telematics data and sensordata). The telematic API 218 may include an Oauth API 220. OAuth is aprotocol that allows applications developed by third-parties to access aservice consumer's account. Within the OAuth workflow, the consumer/useris redirected from the mobile application 202 to an authenticationendpoint for the cloud service, where the user provides authenticationcredentials and authorizes access by the mobile application 202. Thisprocess enables the third party application (i.e., mobile application202) to access the vendor provided service (i.e., web service) withoutrequiring the user to share their authentication credentials with themobile application 202.

In an exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 , the SDK 216 may useRepresentational State Transfer (REST)-style service calls (e.g., RESTservice clients). REST is a predominant web service design model fordistributed systems. REST uses the HTTP protocol directly forcommunication. REST does not require the complex code to communicatethrough SOAP or use XML for data interchange. A plurality of vendorspecific REST clients 212, 224, 226 may send REST service calls to aplurality of cloud-based vendor-specific services 234 a-n, 236 a-n viathe layer 7 interface 228 using the HTTP protocol and may send data inJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, for example. In addition eachREST client 212, 224, 226 may include corresponding configuration data212 a, 224 a, 226 a for accessing metadata and definitions associatedwith at least one cloud-based vehicle ownership support REST service234, 236 provided by one or more REST service providers.

In addition, the SDK 216 may include one or more adapter containers,such as a first adapter container 222 and a second adapter container 242and one or more delegate interfaces 240 a-240 n. The protocol adaptercontainers 222 and 242 can manage the lifecycle of each of the protocoladapters. The protocol adapters may include a REST protocol adapterwhich provides the REST protocol support by deploying REST enabledbundles, for example. Adapters can be constructed that define servicesand events. In one embodiment, REST protocol adapters may include eventdefinitions and related event factories.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the SDK 216 isdesigned as a pluggable component that can be placed into anyenvironment to provide the telematics data. The REST delegate interfaces240 a-240 n provide the ability to plug any REST implementationsavailable in the industry (such as Java reference Jersey, JBOSSRestEasy, etc.) to a standardized telematics callback interface tosupport telematics events.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, theinfrastructure platform 125 may include one or more event detecting andreporting mechanisms. In some embodiments, such event reportingmechanism may include a plurality of callback service interfaces enabledto communicate with corresponding callback agents (not shown in FIG. 2). The callback agents may be software modules configured to trackparticular telematics attributes and report back to a corresponding callback service interface 238 a, 238 n. It is noted callbacks may betriggered when a specific telematics event associated with a particularvehicle ownership support service is detected, for example. In theillustrated embodiment such events may be published by specificcloud-based REST services 236 a-236 n. In some embodiments, callbacksmay be immediately called when a particular telematic event occurs. Inother embodiments, callbacks may be queued and reported periodically toevent listener 244. Various embodiments of the present inventioncontemplate other event detecting and reporting mechanisms (e.g.,asynchronous service invocations other than callbacks or polling). Theevent listener 244 is an infrastructure platform 125 element thatdetects (“listens” for) an occurrence of an event of a specified type ortypes collected by the infrastructure platform 125 and notifies asubscriber (i.e., mobile application 202) of the occurrence of theevent.

FIG. 3 is a more detailed architecture diagram showing communicationsamongst system components shown in FIG. 2 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In a preferred embodiment, mobiledevices hosting the mobile application 202 (i.e., a smartphone)preferably uses asynchronous data transfer techniques in amulti-threaded computing environment to communicate with theinfrastructure platform 125 to prevent thread-blocking that gives theappearance of the mobile application 202 seizing up while waiting for aparticular request to be completed. Certain preferred embodiments mayuse ASI HTTP Requests 308, for example on Apple iOS smartphones, torequest a particular service and/or transaction with the control server206 without blocking a major program thread. Furthermore, as shown inFIG. 3 , in one illustrative embodiment, the infrastructure platform 125may employ a plurality of API requests 304 (i.e. Oauth API requests) forinter-layer communication and for communication with cloud-based vehicleownership support REST services 234, 236. In a preferred embodiment eachAPI request 304 contains at least some of the following information: acommunication use protocol (e.g., SSL), a request token, uniformresource locator, which may be used for identifying the service addressprovided by the vehicle ownership support service provider, anauthorization and authentication URL, an access token URL, a mobileapplication identifying information, an application signature, and thelike.

As shown in FIG. 3 , in an embodiment of the present invention, thelayer 7 web-service interface 228 comprises a message passing interface.In other words, the layer 7 interface 228 may be configured to receivethe API Requests 304 from the TSI 208, perform authentication and passthe received requests 304 to one of the plurality of cloud-basedvendor-specific services 234 a-n. Furthermore, as noted above, theprovider specific event services 236 a-236 n may publish a plurality oftelematics events 302 to the origin server 230. In turn, the originserver 230 may communicate information related to specific telematicsevents related to a particular vehicle to a dedicated web serviceincluded in the layer 7 interface 228.

In exemplary embodiments, the infrastructure platform 125 also includesa RESTful notification service 310, which is an example of pushnotification middleware. In various embodiments, the notificationservice 310 may support multiple notification transport protocols. Forexample and without limitation, the RESTful notification service 310 mayreceive asynchronous telematics events 302 from the layer 7 interface228 and may support the following notification transport protocols:Google™ Cloud Messaging (GCM), Apple™ Push Notification Service (APNs),and Short Message Service (SMS). Each of the transport protocols can beused to establish channels for telematics event push notifications 312to the mobile application 202. In some cases, the infrastructureplatform 125 may further include various gateways (not shown in FIG. 3 )that may be used to establish notification channels with the mobileapplication 202. For example, such gateways may include a GCM gateway,an SMS server, and a APNs gateway. It will be understood that additionalor fewer push notification components can be supported in variousembodiments of the infrastructure platform 125. An example of atelematics event notification channel is depicted in FIG. 3 that isestablished by the notification service 310 associated with a particularnotification transport protocol (e.g., APN) to send a telematics event302 trigger with a payload between the layer 7 interface 228,notification service 310, and the mobile application 202 in thisexample.

FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram for the system of FIGS. 2 and 3demonstrating some exemplary vehicle ownership support services providedby the system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.Before turning to description of FIG. 4 , it is noted that the flowdiagram in FIG. 4 shows examples in which operational steps are carriedout in a particular order, as indicated by the lines connecting theblocks, but the various steps shown in this diagram can be performed inany order, or in any combination or sub-combination. It should beappreciated that in some embodiments some of the steps described belowmay be combined into a single step. In some embodiments, one or moresteps may be omitted. In some embodiments, one or more additional stepsmay be performed. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art,aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a method or computerprogram product. In some embodiments, the method described below may beperformed, at least in part, by one or more components of a computersystem for processing vehicle ownership support data.

The computer system for processing vehicle ownership support datadescribed herein provides a mechanism for a user to download a mobileapplication 202 using a common ecosystem such as, for example, thoseprovided by Apple™ and Google™ According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, at step 402, a user registers the mobile application with theinfrastructure platform 125 described above. FIGS. 5A-5E illustrate anexemplary registration process for accessing automated vehicle ownershipsupport services infrastructure in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. As shown in FIG. 5B as part of that registrationprocess the user may select one or more vehicle telematics devices whichcan be physically installed in a user's vehicle by connecting thevehicle telematics device to a vehicle communication interface of thevehicle. As described herein such vehicle telematics devices monitorinformation regarding operation of the vehicle, for example. The vehiclecommunication interface includes, but is not limited to, an on-boarddiagnostics (OBD) port, OBD-II port, controller area network (CAN) port,and the like. In various embodiments, vehicle telematics devices may beoffered by the providers of cloud-based services 234 a-n. As shown inFIG. 5D, having selected a vehicle telematics device, a user can chooseone or more vehicles to be associated with at least one cloud-basedvehicle ownership support REST service 234, 236 provided by one or moreREST service providers using the infrastructure platform 125. Referringback to FIG. 4 , at step 406, as part of the registration process, theinfrastructure platform 125 may receive additional information (i.e., aVIN number, mileage, etc.) about one or more vehicles to be registeredwith the REST service providers. In some embodiments this informationmay be obtained automatically as part of telematics data, while in otherembodiments such data may be entered by users.

Once the registration process is complete, at step 408, theinfrastructure platform 125 (i.e., one or more components ofinfrastructure platform 125) starts receiving telematics data (e.g.,telematics events, etc.) regarding at least one vehicle. Such telematicsdata can be derived from a registered vehicle telematics device andprovided by one of the cloud-based vehicle ownership support services234 a-n and the like.

Next, at step 410, the infrastructure platform 125 identifies one ormore vehicle ownership support services subscribed to by the mobileapplication 202. It is noted that as part of the registration process,the infrastructure platform 125 (e.g., control server 206) initiatesdownload of the mobile application 202 to the mobile device 112. Theinfrastructure platform 125 also initiates subscription to any vehicleownership support service selected by a user as part of the registrationprocess (at step 402) when prompted. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, the infrastructure platform 125 may alsoautomatically determine whether any of the subscribed to vehicleownership support services include location-based services (at step412).

In response to determining that the mobile application 202 hassubscribed to one or more location-based services (decision block 412,yes branch), at step 414, the infrastructure platform 125 determines alocation of the vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data anda location of the mobile device 112 associated with the vehicle (e.g.,GPS data, NFC data, Bluetooth® data, etc.). As described above, theinfrastructure platform 125 in various embodiments provides thefunctionality by which data received from the vehicle telematics devicevia one or more third party vehicle ownership support services 234 a-nis collected and organized. Such data includes but is not limited todata regarding a user or a vehicle. Examples include: information aboutuser's movements, such as where a user has traveled and the route thatthe user has taken to reach a destination; information regarding themanner in which a user traveled to a destination, such as the speed ofthe vehicle, braking force, the time of day; information regarding theconditions of such movement, such as the weather or traffic conditions,information about whether and how often other technology was used duringthe trip, such as mobile phone, computer or navigation system;information regarding the vehicle's stay at a destination, such as howlong the vehicle stayed at a destination or whether there were othervehicles present; information regarding the nature of the destinations,such as whether the destination is a home or business, and the type ofhome or business (e.g. fuel dispensing station, gym, restaurant, cardealer, etc.); and information about the condition of the vehicleitself, such as vehicle diagnostic information, etc.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the infrastructureplatform 125 may include and/or may be communicatively coupled to ananalysis engine (not shown in FIGS. 2, 3 ). In one embodiment, theanalysis engine comprises the functionality by which the infrastructureplatform 125 analyzes telematics and/or location data and extractsmeaning from such data (step 416). Such meaning may be extracted indifferent ways depending on a particular vehicle ownership supportservice. In one instance, such analysis engine may try to identify apattern of behavior from telematics data and extract meaning from it. Apattern of behavior may be engaging in a certain type of behavior withat a certain level of frequency. For example, driving to the sameaddress every day may indicate that a user lives or works at theaddress. In another example, the analysis engine may evaluate patternsof behavior based on multiple variables. For instance, driving to thesame address each day during business hours may have a different meaningthan driving to the same address outside of business hours.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, at step 418, one ormore vehicle ownership support services may be provided to the mobileapplication 202 via the infrastructure platform 125. Note that thesequence and the specific steps discussed below are provided forillustrative purposes only. The specific steps required and order of thesteps may vary in accordance with the vehicle ownership support servicesselected. In some cases steps may be omitted, steps may be added; or thesequence of steps may be rearranged.

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate exemplary vehicle related notifications providedby an automated vehicle ownership support services infrastructure via amobile application in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. For example, FIG. 6A shows an example of a dashboardnotification view. A dashboard notification view may display togetherthe following information: vehicle identification information 602, userconfigurable alerts information 604, information related to fuelconsumption 606 and trip performance information 608. The vehicleidentification information 602 may include the vehicle's manufacturer,make, model, year, etc. In one embodiment, the mobile application 202may include configurable programmatic settings for the low fuel alertand warning levels related to vehicle's maintenance issues that aredelivered to the mobile application 202 in response to receivingasynchronous telematics events 302 published by the provider specificevent services 236 a-236 n to the origin server 230, as described above.Typically, the vehicle's OBD provides a low level fluid warningindicator which provides a warning as to the low level of fuel remainingin the fuel tank based on a predetermined threshold. In contrast, thelow level notification may be displayed by the infrastructure platform125 based on the user configurable parameters. The fuel consumptionrelated information 606 may include a remaining amount of fuel or adriving range such as the distance remaining to empty.

Referring back to FIG. 4 , in one embodiment, at step 418 a, theinfrastructure platform 125 may be configured to automatically detectlow fuel conditions by monitoring generated push notifications 312. Inresponse to detecting a low fuel alert (decision block 418 a, yesbranch) the infrastructure platform 125 may automatically identify atleast one closest fuel dispensing station based on the current locationof the vehicle (at 418 b) and based on the third party informationprovided by the cloud-based vehicle ownership support services 234 a-n.Furthermore, the infrastructure platform 125 may automatically send mapinformation corresponding to the identified fuel dispensing stations tothe mobile application 202. In one embodiment a user of the mobileapplication 202 may invoke such fueling station finder map 610functionality by touching a low fuel alert 604, for example. In oneembodiment, at step 418 c, the infrastructure platform 125 may continueto monitor vehicle's location with respect to the identified fueldispensing stations. If the infrastructure platform 125 determines thatthe monitored vehicle is located in a predetermined proximity of one ofthe identified fuel dispensing stations (decision block 418 c, yesbranch), the infrastructure platform 125 may automatically determinescope of fueling permissions associated with the received vehicleidentification data and initiate a fueling session (at 418 d) associatedwith the vehicle 110, as shown in FIG. 1 .

FIGS. 7A-7F illustrate exemplary enhanced trip management servicesprovided by an automated vehicle ownership support servicesinfrastructure via a mobile application in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention. In one embodiment, trip information 702 may beprovided to a user based on predefined travel criteria (e.g., cost,emissions, mileage, duration, travel quality etc.) with respect toroutes previously travelled by the user's vehicle. As shown in FIGS.7B-7E, users of mobile application 202 may have an ability to designateone or more routes listed in the trip information 702 as frequentlytravelled routes. FIG. 7B illustrates that a user may have an ability toselect a frequently travelled route 704 using the corresponding map 706displayed by the mobile application 202. FIG. 7C illustrates that themobile application 202 may prompt 708 the user to provide a name or anyother identifier for the selected route 704. For example, the user maydesignate the selected route 704 as a morning commute route 710, asshown in FIG. 7D. It is noted that infrastructure platform 125 may storethe user provided name along with other information (i.e., mapinformation) associated with the selected route (as shown in FIG. 7E).Advantageously, the analysis engine may analyze the obtained telematicsdata for the one or more routes designated as frequently travelled bythe user. For example, the enhanced trip management service may provideoptimal travel time(s), optimal alternative route(s), etc. with respectto the frequently traveled routes. In one embodiment, by continuing tomonitor and update the information received (including telematicsinformation and statistical information), the infrastructure platform125 can automatically update a predicted travel time and/or changeroutes (or a portion of a route) to provide the user with the bestinformation so that the shortest route is taken, even in view of thedynamic nature of changing road conditions. FIG. 7F illustratesadditional functionality related to trip information that may beprovided by mobile application 202. More specifically, the users mayhave the ability to filter 714 the information related to the previouslydesignated frequently travelled routes.

Referring back to FIG. 4 yet again, in one embodiment the mobileapplication 202 may be subscribed to receiving maintenancenotifications. Accordingly, in the illustrated embodiment, at step 418e, the infrastructure platform 125 may be configured to automaticallydetect any telematics events related to the monitored vehicle'smaintenance. In response to determining that at least one of thepublished telematics events is related to the vehicle's maintenance(decision block 418 e, yes branch), at step 418 f, the infrastructureplatform 125 preferably generates and sends a corresponding alert to themobile application 202 using one of the establish notification channelswith the mobile application 202, as described above in conjunction withFIG. 3 .

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate exemplary enhanced vehicle maintenance supportservices provided by an automated vehicle ownership support servicesinfrastructure via a mobile application in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention. Once the mobile application 202 receivesmaintenance related alerts sent by the infrastructure platform 125 (atstep 4180, the mobile application 202 may display the received alertsassociated with maintenance related issues 802 to a user along withother user configurable alerts information (i.e., low fuel alerts), asshown in FIG. 8A. In one embodiment of the present invention, a user maybe able to obtain more detailed information for each identified issue,for example, by touching the received maintenance alert. As noted above,for illustrative purposes only, telematics data obtained and maintainedby the infrastructure platform 125 includes vehicle diagnostic data.Those skilled in the art will understand that diagnostic data availablefrom the vehicle's engine control unit (ECU) usually includes generated5-digit ‘diagnostic trouble codes’ (DTCs) that indicate a specificproblem with the vehicle. Advantageously, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention, for each identified maintenance issue, theinfrastructure platform 125 decodes the received DTC data by applying itagainst a lookup table that may be provided by a third party. In theillustrated embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8B, the detailed informationrelated to the identified maintenance issues 804 may include descriptionof the identified maintenance issue, as well as information identifyingfaulty parts.

In a preferred embodiment, one of the enhanced vehicle maintenancesupport services may include automated repair assistance. Referring backto FIG. 4 , at step 418 g, the analysis engine or any other suitablecomponent of the infrastructure platform 125 may examine the receiveddiagnostics data to determine whether any of the identified issues areserious enough to require immediate repairs. If such issues are found(decision block 418 g, yes branch), at step 418 h the infrastructureplatform 125 preferably provides suggested repair information including,for example, estimated costs 806 as shown in FIG. 8C. In thisillustrative embodiment, at least one cloud-based vehicle ownershipsupport REST service 234, 236 may provide relevant information relatedto a plurality of vehicle repair service providers. The relevant serviceprovider information may include the name of the service provider, adescription, an address, a phone number, a mobile phone number, a faxnumber, an e-mail address, technician names, and any other relevantinformation such as, but not limited to certification information. Thecertification information may include a qualification type, acertificate number, an expiration date for the certificate, a status,and any other relevant information associated with technicians, forexample. In one embodiment, the mobile application 202 may employ mapfunctionality similar to fueling station finder map 610 shown in FIG. 6Bto display information related to the relevant service providers locatedin the vicinity of vehicle's current location, for instance. Theestimated repair information may be derived based on the informationexchanged between the infrastructure platform 125 and correspondingvendor specific cloud-based vehicle ownership support REST service 234.

FIGS. 9A-9G illustrate additional exemplary services provided by anautomated vehicle ownership support services infrastructure via a mobileapplication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.It should be noted that while a fuel dispensing facility is shown inFIG. 1 and described above, embodiments of the present inventioncontemplate the situation where an entire chain of stores or relatedstores may be interconnected such that any one of their POS terminalscan be connected to a single server through the infrastructure platform125. Further, as described above, numerous fuel dispensing stations canalso be coupled to the infrastructure platform 125 to allow discountedfuel in response to customer purchases at one of the associated retailstores, for example. Also, fuel companies can form alliances such thatChevron and Exxon can have their pump controllers connected to the samecloud-based vehicle ownership support REST service 234. Further, it canbe seen that with the infrastructure platform 125 described above it ispossible to connect virtually any retailer wishing to offer discountedfuel based on predefined purchase criteria with virtually any fuelstation without geographic boundary by employing the cloud-based RESTservice 234. It is noted that discounts may also be offered for purchaseof items other than fuel, such as discounts 902 at a convenience storeor other retailer associated with a fuel dispensing station (shown inFIG. 9A) which may be offered to a user during a fueling session via themobile application 202.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the infrastructureplatform 125 may include performance monitoring service based ontelematics data provided by one or more cloud-based REST services 234.For example, such monitoring services may assess the operation of avehicle, user's driving behavior and the potential for vehicleaccidents. It is often beneficial to provide users ongoing informationabout their driving performance and how that driving performancecompares to the performance of the user's peers. FIG. 9B illustrate anexemplary performance assessment service that may be provided by theinfrastructure platform 125 and that may be rendered via mobileapplication 202. In one non-limiting embodiment, such performanceassessment may include users's driving performance score 903, drivingbehavior 904 and advice 906. This advice 906 gives the user sufficientinformation to manage his or her driving behaviors in a proactive mannerand understand his or her performance relative to long term car care. Itgives the driver an opportunity to make improvements and see the resultsof those improvements in terms of vehicle maintenance and repair costs.Providing the information in a historical format 905 allows users totrack their improvements over time. The overall driving performancescore 903 shown in FIG. 9B summarizes the user's overall performance forthe time period in the form of a single performance score. Byimplementing a historical driver score analysis the disclosedperformance monitoring service provides this information directly tousers in a concise and summarized graphical format 908. Advantageously,many users may be encouraged or motivated to make improvements and willhave the information (such as driving trends 910 shown in FIG. 9C) totrack their progress.

FIG. 9D illustrates an exemplary roadside assistance service that may beprovided by an automated vehicle ownership support servicesinfrastructure via a mobile application 202 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. More specifically, for example, theinfrastructure platform 125 may automatically assess damage to thevehicle and/or health of vehicle occupants in the event of an accidentor incident. Further, the infrastructure platform 125 may also determinenumber of people involved, vital signs, images from within the vehicle(e.g., via cameras), black box type telematics data (e.g., speed atimpact, time of day, time/length of impact, etc.). Additionally, themobile application 202 may enable users to communicate data to EMS,police, insurance company, mobile phones and/or other linked devices viathe infrastructure platform 125 (e.g. in the form of push notifications312). Automatic crash reporting for police 912 and insurance information914 may also be provided.

FIGS. 9E-9G illustrate exemplary user activity log and enhanced vehiclemaintenance services that may be provided by an automated vehicleownership support services infrastructure via a mobile application 202in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Morespecifically, FIG. 9E illustrates additional enhanced capability oflogging user's driving activity and vehicle operating data 916. As notedabove, once the mobile application 202 receives maintenance relatedalerts sent by the infrastructure platform 125 (at step 4180, the mobileapplication 202 may display the received alerts associated withmaintenance related issues 918 to a user along with other userconfigurable alerts information, as shown in FIG. 9F. In one embodimentof the present invention, a user may be able to obtain more detailedinformation 922 for each identified issue, for example, by touching thereceived maintenance alert. Advantageously, according to an embodimentof the present invention, for each identified maintenance issue, theinfrastructure platform 125 decodes the received DTC data by applying itagainst a lookup table that may be provided by a third party. In theillustrated embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9G, the detailed information922 related to the identified maintenance issue 920 may includedescription of the identified maintenance issue, as well as informationidentifying faulty parts and a practical advice in addressing thespecific identified issue 920.

The techniques described herein, therefore, provide a single interfacefor enhanced vehicle ownership experience services. In particular, thetechniques herein significantly improve the customer experience andfacilitate prevention of damage to vehicles. Moreover, using thetelematics data from a customer's vehicle, various feedback,recommendations or enhancements can be provided to the customer, asdiscussed above.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer system for processing vehicleownership support data, the computer system comprising: a memory of aninfrastructure platform configured to store one or more processes thatwhen executed by a processor are operable to: receive telematics dataregarding a vehicle via a telematics service interface creating aninterface between a telematics service interface client associated witha vehicle and an application programming interface facilitatingcommunication with the infrastructure platform, wherein the telematicsdata includes GPS location data of the vehicle and a driving directionof the vehicle; analyze the telematics data to determine a low fuelcondition based on the fuel of the vehicle violating a predeterminedthreshold; in response to the low fuel condition, determine a currentlocation of the vehicle in real-time based on the GPS location data ofthe telematics data; in response to determining the low fuel condition,automatically identify, based on the driving direction, one or more fueldispensing stations in proximity to the current location of the vehicle;continuously monitor the current location of the vehicle with respect tothe one or more identified fuel dispensing stations; provide informationrelated to each of the one or more identified fuel dispensing stationsto a mobile application displayed to a driver of the vehicle; determinethat the vehicle is located within a predetermined proximity to one ofthe one or more identified fuel dispensing stations; determine, based ona remaining amount of fuel in the vehicle, a scope of fuelingpermissions associated with the vehicle at the one of the one or moreidentified fuel dispensing stations using the infrastructure platform;and automatically initiate a fueling session at the one of the one ormore identified fuel dispensing stations contingent upon the scope offueling permission.
 2. The computer system as recited in claim 1,further comprising a web service implementing at least one of the one ormore processes, wherein the web service comprises at least onerepresentational state transfer conforming (RESTful) interface.
 3. Thecomputer system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a pushnotification interface for providing a notification to the mobileapplication.
 4. The computer system as recited in claim 3, wherein theprocesses further include one or more processes to send one or morenotifications to the mobile application using the push notificationinterface based upon the telematics data.
 5. The computer system asrecited in claim 1, further comprising: one or more ApplicationProgramming Interfaces (APIs) configured to provide access of thetelematics data to the mobile application.
 6. The computer system asrecited in claim 1, wherein the telematics data further comprises triphistory data associated with the vehicle.
 7. The computer system recitedin claim 6, wherein the processes further include one or more processesto filter the trip history data based on a user-specified criteria andfurther operable to cause display of the filtered trip history data. 8.The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the telematics datacomprises vehicle diagnostics data, and wherein the processes furtherinclude one or more processes to send one or more maintenancenotifications associated with the vehicle to the mobile applicationbased upon the vehicle diagnostics data.
 9. The computer system asrecited in claim 8, wherein the processes further include one or moreprocesses to: identify one or more repair needs based on the vehiclediagnostics data; estimate repair cost associated with the one or morerepair needs based on a data provided by a plurality of vehicle repairservice providers; and cause display of the one or more repair needs andthe estimated repair cost associated therewith on the mobileapplication.
 10. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein thepredetermined threshold relates to the remaining amount of fuel.
 11. Thecomputer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the predeterminedthreshold relates to a distance to empty.
 12. The computer system asrecited in claim 11, wherein the distance to empty is based on fuelconsumption information, the fuel consumption information is at least aportion of the telematics data.
 13. The computer system as recited inclaim 1, wherein the processes include processes to: compare the currentlocation to two or more fuel dispensing station locations; and determinea closest fuel dispensing station location, wherein the closest fueldispensing station location is the location of the one of the one ormore fuel dispensing stations.
 14. The computer system as recited inclaim 13, wherein the processes include a process to: send mapinformation corresponding to the one or more fuel dispensing stations tothe mobile application based on comparing the current location to thetwo or more fuel dispensing station locations.
 15. A method forprocessing vehicle ownership support data by a processor, the methodcomprising: receiving telematics data regarding a vehicle via atelematics service interface creating an interface between a telematicsservice interface client associated with a vehicle and an applicationprogramming interface facilitating communication with an infrastructureplatform, wherein the telematics data includes GPS location data of thevehicle and a driving direction of the vehicle; analyzing the telematicsdata to determine a low fuel condition based on the fuel of the vehicleviolating a predetermined threshold; determining a location of thevehicle in real-time based on the GPS location data of the telematicsdata; in response to determining the low fuel condition, automaticallyidentifying, based on the driving direction, one or more fuel dispensingstations in proximity to the location of the vehicle; continuouslymonitor the location of the vehicle with respect to the one or moreidentified fuel dispensing stations; providing information related toeach of the one or more identified fuel dispensing stations to a mobileapplication displayed to a driver of the vehicle; determine that thevehicle is located within a predetermined proximity to one of the one ormore identified fuel dispensing stations; determining, based on aremaining amount of fuel in the vehicle, a scope of fueling permissionsassociated with the vehicle at the one of the one or more identifiedfuel dispensing stations using the infrastructure platform; andautomatically initiating a fueling session at the one of the one or moreidentified fuel dispensing stations contingent upon the scope of fuelingpermission.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the telematics data isreceived via a web service including a representational state transferconforming (RESTful) interface.
 17. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising providing a notification to the mobile application.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the notification is based on the telematicsdata.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein the telematics data furthercomprises trip history data associated with the vehicle.
 20. The methodof claim 19, further comprising filtering the trip history data based ona user-specified criteria and further operable to cause display of thefiltered trip history data.
 21. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising sending a maintenance notification associated with thevehicle to the mobile application based upon vehicle diagnostics data,wherein the telematics data comprises the vehicle diagnostics data.